Saint Anthony in polychromed limewood - Swabia, Early 16th century

This charming linden statuette represents the very popular Saint Anthony, dressed in the hooded homespun robe of the Hospitaller Order of Antonins. Popularized by the Golden Legend of Jacques de Voragine, this 3rd century Egyptian hermit retired to the desert to live his faith in poverty and chastity. After resisting the attacks of the Devil and triumph as Christ, he passed the rest of his life to taught to disciples who visited him to listen to him preach and join in his prayers. On his death, his relics were first transferred to Constantinople before joining an abbey in Dauphiné around the middle of the 11th century which had become famous under the name of Saint Antoine-en-Viennois. It is around this place that the community of Antonins is organized, erected into a religious hospital order under Pope Boniface VIII in 1289 and specialized in the reception of patients suffering from contagious diseases (plague, leprosy, "the Burning sickness” etc.). Here, our saint is represented aged, according to the iconographic tradition. He carries in his left hand a book alluding to the Antonite rule and must have held in the right a Tau or a bell, two of his usual attributes as illustrated by a print dated from the years 1460-1470, kept at the University Library of Salzburg. At his feet appears a pig, a privileged attribute of the saint. The latter would allude both to the diabolical wild boar of the desert that Antoine would have domesticated and which would later have become his most faithful companion, but also to the pigs of his order which were the only ones able to circulate freely in the streets, decked out in a bell. We find this animal at the foot of the saint on a German bas-relief from the beginning of the 16th century acquired by the Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame de Strasbourg from the Galerie Sismann in 2014. From a stylistic point of view, our work is similar to Swabian productions of the first half of the 16th century and more particularly to a very beautiful Saint Jacques from the Landesmuseum in Zürich. This sculpture from a church in the county of Aargau, between Bern and Zürich, presents a similar treatment of the draperies of the saint's mantle, but also of the beard and hair with wavy locks chiseled into hooks. Moreover, this Saint Jacques shares the same physiognomy as our Saint Anthony, marked by an elongated oval face. Hollowed out on its reverse, our sculpture must once have adorned the shutters of an altarpiece, hanging from other saints.

Published in: Sisman, G.; Lequio, M., Gothique : De l'Art des cathédrales au Spätgotik allemand, Galerie Sismann, 2021. ©Galerie Sismann